My Sister, the Serial Killer
Korede is a careful, competent nurse in Lagos, the responsible sister who keeps her head down and her surfaces clean. Her younger sister Ayoola is beautiful, charming, and adored by everyone she meets — and she has a habit of killing her boyfriends. Each time, Ayoola calls Korede, insists it was self-defence, and Korede arrives with bleach and a level head to make the bodies and the evidence disappear.
The arrangement holds until Ayoola sets her sights on Tade, a kind doctor at Korede's hospital whom Korede has quietly loved for years. Forced to choose between protecting her sister and warning the man she wants, Korede finds the careful order of her life beginning to crack, while the shadow of the sisters' abusive late father falls over everything they do.
Oyinkan Braithwaite's debut is a sharp, darkly comic thriller told in short, propulsive chapters. Set against a vivid Lagos backdrop, My Sister, the Serial Killer is less a whodunit than a study of loyalty, envy, and the impossible pull of family — funny and unsettling in equal measure.
A meticulous Lagos nurse who cleans up after her sister's crimes.
Korede's charming, beautiful younger sister, whose boyfriends keep dying.
A kind doctor at Korede's hospital whom she has quietly loved.
The third of Ayoola's boyfriends to die at her hands; his death opens the novel.
The UK production company Working Title optioned the film rights in March 2018, before the novel was even published. As of the most recent reporting, the adaptation is still in early development with no cast, release date, or trailer announced.
My Sister, the Serial Killer won the 2019 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. It was also longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. (It was not a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller — that year's prize went to Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay.)
This book is a standalone story with a complete narrative arc. Readers can enjoy it without needing to read any other works by the author.